50 free Hippocrates trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Hippocrates trivia quiz covers the Greek physician from Kos who is called the Father of Medicine, and the school and writings that carry his name. It follows the son of a physician trained at the island's asklepieion, the idea that disease has natural causes rather than divine ones, the four humours, the doctrine of the crisis, prognosis and case histories, the treatments for fevers, fractures and haemorrhoids, the seventy-odd works of the Hippocratic Corpus, and the Oath that most modern scholars think he did not write but that doctors still swear versions of today. The easy questions are ones most people know: his title, his island, his oath. The medium ones ask about his family, the humours, his methods and the signs and devices named after him. The hard ones dig into Soranus, the Knidian school, Primum non nocere, the Declaration of Geneva, the plane tree of Kos and the dragon legend in Mandeville's Travels. It suits a medical-school icebreaker, a history of science round or anyone who has ever been told to feed a cold and starve a fever. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01By what title is Hippocrates traditionally known?
The Father of Medicine
He is credited with prognosis, clinical observation and the systematic categorisation of diseases.
Q 02On which Greek island was Hippocrates born around 460 BC?
Kos
He was probably trained at the island's asklepieion, a healing temple.
Q 03What is the ethical pledge, still taken by doctors in modified forms, credited to Hippocrates?
The Hippocratic Oath
Modern scholars think it was probably written after his death, in the fifth or fourth century BC.
Q 04He was named after his grandfather; what suffix distinguishes the famous doctor from him?
II (the second)
Two of his grandsons were also called Hippocrates, numbered III and IV.
Q 05Who was Hippocrates's first biographer and the source of most personal details about him?
Soranus of Ephesus
Soranus wrote in the 2nd century AD, some 500 years after his subject.
Q 06What was the profession of Hippocrates's father, Heraclides?
Physician
Hippocrates learned medicine from both his father and grandfather.
Q 07Which two contemporaries mention Hippocrates in passing in their writings?
Plato and Aristotle
Plato calls him 'Hippocrates of Kos, the Asclepiad' in the Protagoras.
Q 08According to Galen, who was Hippocrates's true successor?
His son-in-law Polybus
His sons Thessalus and Draco were also his students.
Q 09Where did Hippocrates probably die?
Larissa
He was said to be 83, 85 or 90, though some claimed he lived to well over 100.
Q 10Hippocrates is credited as the first to believe that diseases were caused by what?
Natural factors, not gods or superstition
There is not a single mention of a mystical illness in the entire Hippocratic Corpus.
Q 11What were the four humours in Hippocratic medicine?
Blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile
Illness was seen as an excess or deficiency of one of them; the theory was only disproved with the discovery of microbes.
Q 12Ancient Greek medicine was split between the Koan tradition of Hippocrates and which rival tradition?
The Knidian
The Koan doctors focused instead on patient care and prognosis.
Q 13Why did Greek medicine in Hippocrates's time know almost nothing of human anatomy?
A taboo forbade dissecting humans
Q 21What diagnostic sign of chronic lung disease is Hippocrates credited with first describing?
Clubbing of the fingers
Clubbed fingers are still sometimes called 'Hippocratic fingers'.
Q 22Shakespeare alludes to the 'Hippocratic face' of a dying person when describing whose death in Henry V?
Falstaff
The Hippocratic face is the change in countenance produced by death or long sickness.
Q 23Hippocrates is described as the first documented surgeon of which part of the body?
The chest
He used lead pipes to drain chest-wall abscesses, a technique still considered valid.
This is why the rival school of doctors failed to tell apart diseases with similar symptoms.
Q 14In Hippocratic medicine, what was a 'crisis'?
The turning point when a patient would either die or recover
Crises were expected on 'critical days', a fixed time after the disease began.
Q 15What Latin phrase sums up the Hippocratic idea that the body can heal itself?
Vis medicatrix naturae
Treatment aimed simply to ease this natural process, with rest and immobilisation 'of capital importance'.
Q 16What two liquids were the only ones ever used on wounds in Hippocratic medicine?
Clean water or wine
'Dry' treatment was preferred, and patients were kept clean and sterile.
Q 17What mixture did Hippocrates prescribe as a generalised treatment?
Honey and vinegar
He also prescribed fasting, saying 'to eat when you are sick is to feed your sickness'.
Q 18Which folk saying may Hippocrates have originated by treating fevers with fasting?
'Feed a cold, starve a fever'
In his day fever was thought to be a disease in itself.
Q 19What device named after Hippocrates used tension to set broken bones?
The Hippocratic bench
Traction stretched the skeleton to relieve pressure on the injured area.
Q 20Hippocrates reportedly measured a patient's pulse while taking a history to discover what?
Whether the patient was lying
He also noted complexion, pains, movement and excretions with care.
Q 24The Hippocratic Corpus's discussion of the rectal speculum is the earliest recorded reference to what?
Endoscopy
Haemorrhoids were treated by ligating them and drying them with a hot iron.
Q 25Which condition did Hippocrates help demote from a divine affliction to a common brain disorder?
Epilepsy
The treatise On the Sacred Disease argued it had a natural cause and that the brain was the seat of intelligence.
Q 26Which popular quotation attributed to Hippocrates is probably a misquotation?
'Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food'
'Walking is man's best medicine' is another line of unknown origin pinned on him.
Q 27Roughly how many treatises make up the Hippocratic Corpus?
About seventy
It was collected in Alexandria and written in Ionic Greek by many hands; one scholar counted nineteen authors.
Q 28Why did all these treatises come to be known by Hippocrates's name?
An Alexandrian librarian may have filed them all under him because of his fame
The volumes were probably produced by his students and followers over many decades.
Q 29Which of these is a genuine treatise in the Hippocratic Corpus?
On Airs, Waters and Places
Others include Aphorisms, Prognostics and On the Sacred Disease.
Q 30Which two principles of medical ethics does the Hippocratic Oath establish?
Confidentiality and non-maleficence
It is the earliest expression of medical ethics in the Western world, and both principles remain central to modern practice.